I’m going to be quite honest: making ice cream at home, even with a machine, is really kind of a pain. While the ingredients and the techniques themselves are relatively simple, the planning itself is the real nuisance. The fact that you have to cook it, chill it, spin it, and then freeze it all seems rather daunting for those of us who prefer instant gratification. The fact is, all of this chilling and freezing can require several hours, and so even though the process itself becomes rather passive, it always seems to drag out, literally, for two days.
With such obstacles in place, I feel that the payoff has to be two-fold. Not only does homemade ice cream have to be good (and it usually is), but it also has to be unique. Are you really going to invest all of this time and patience into vanilla, when you can simply buy vanilla (even good vanilla) so easily? Why not push things in a new direction? That’s been my philosophy, anyhow. So when I make ice cream at home, I usually choose between two delicious flavors that you’ll probably never find anywhere: crème fraîche or Guinness.
The crème fraîche recipe is one that I cribbed when I was cooking at Martini House, but the Guinness recipe is an old standby. With Guinness ice cream, the flavor profile is really unique, perhaps a little reminiscent of mocha, but much more difficult to identify. For those delicate creatures who might bristle or balk at the thought of drinking a dark and creamy stout, the experience of eating Guinness ice cream is extremely far removed from actually sipping on a pint.
Guinness ice cream is surprisingly good, so stop making that face. After all, it is ice cream, isn’t it? Besides, St. Patrick’s Day is coming up soon, so the time is right (you’d better get started now, though).
• • •
Ingredients (makes one quart)
• Guinness Stout, one tall-boy can
• Heavy cream, one cup
• Whole milk, one cup
• Sugar, 3/4 cup
• Egg yolks, six each
• • •
Method
1. In a small saucepan, reduce the Guinness to about half a cup (just get it close, and don’t let it boil over, as it’s prone to do in the beginning). Meanwhile, combine the cream, milk and sugar in a heavy saucepan, and heat until the sugar dissolves.
2. In a mixing bowl, begin with the six egg yolks and whisk in small but increasing amounts of the warm cream-milk-sugar liquid. This technique is called tempering, and it’s not just for superstition. If this concept is unfamiliar, take just a minute to research it on YouTube or something.
3. Once all of the liquid has been whisked into the eggs, return the contents to the heavy saucepan and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens (it should coat the back of the spoon at about 170ºF). If you’re wondering what this should look like, just imagine melted ice cream.
4. Whisk in the Guinness reduction, then chill the ice cream base in the refrigerator. This will give you plenty of time to look for your ice cream machine owner’s manual (here are PDFs for seven popular models).
5. Garnishes, which are usually added as the ice cream spins, can vary. Chocolate works very well alongside Guinness ice cream (whether as chips, cookies or sauce), while chocolate-covered pretzels also pay homage to the classic beer-and-pretzel motif (note: try to keep the pieces whole — a secure chocolate coating keeps the pretzels from becoming soggy).
